day ONE HUNDRED and TEN

Blind

Yesterday a man took out his rage
at Ohio State University.
More a child than a man though,
just 18, tired of injustice toward Muslims,
afraid that Trump will make it all worse.
He's probably right.

Trump has hired another white supremacy
supporter for his cabinet.
Radical Islam is becoming trumped by
Radical racism in this country.
You rarely see that on the news though.
This disturbed boy, knife in hand,
shot to death by a campus police officer.

The act covered the airwaves,
ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, CNBC, FOX.
They say he was "attacking America",
that the boogie man radicals are out to get us all,
but the people have yet to see the real stories.

The Standing Rock Sioux standing up for their heritage,
protesting the destruction of their burial and holy sites
by the greedy oil North Dakota pipeline.
The law enforcement using tear gas,
stun grenades, rubber bullets and water guns
that knocked out many and ripped the flesh
off the hand of one protesting Native American.
Just this morning blockades were set up
to block the delivery of supplies needed
by the protesters for the winter.

This is how the country treats its own,
those that were here first before
we, the real immigrants, migrated in.
A government for the people, by the people, right?
That's the real terrorism, the real news,
a story that NEEDS to be covered
but has never really seen the light of day in this country
and no doubt never will.

The other day I overheard a conversation
of one man telling another that middle easterners
should either be deported or shot dead.
If that is how they feel then what should
the people of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe do
with a country terrorizing them?

The real crime is that we, the people,
are told what to know, what to believe,
by a government, media and society
so damaged that we turn to those that say
they will help us heal, even though
we know it’s all a lie.
In this case its hate, the racists, the prejudicial,
the rich, the ultra-conservatives, the white supremacists,
those that whisper sweet nothings into a love starved ear
until one day they are controlled and malleable,
turned into a mindlessly following zombie.
On that day the people of this country
will only see the boy at OSU as a monster
and the law enforcement at Standing Rock as heroes
and, when that day comes, justice will truly be blind.


--Craig Firsdon